Knowing that stress from the upheaval of widespread changes can cause an initial dip in achievement before improvements start to show, Superintendent James Meza said he braced himself for the test results from his first year of reforming Jefferson Parish public schools. Then on Wednesday, he rejoiced. Instead of a stumble, Jefferson showed gains. And the gains were impressive...

Knowing that stress from the upheaval of widespread changes can cause an initial dip in achievement before improvements start to show, Superintendent James Meza said he braced himself for the test results from his first year of reforming Jefferson Parish public schools. Then on Wednesday, he rejoiced.

Rusty Costanza/The Times-PicayuneLouisiana education Superintendent John White speaks at Greenlawn Terrace Elementary in Kenner on Wednesday, as he unveils statewide test score results and praises Jefferson Parish for its gains.

Instead of a stumble, Jefferson showed gains. And the gains were impressive enough that Louisiana education Superintendent John White chose a Jefferson school, Greenlawn Terrace Elementary in Kenner, as the scene for the announcement where he unveiled the 2012 scores from the state's array of standardized tests that factor into evaluations of schools, districts and for some students, decisions on whether they can advance a grade.

White's presentation highlighted Jefferson's cumulative three-point rise in the percentage of its students scoring in the top three of five categories on all the state tests, tying it with several other districts for the fourth-highest jump in the state. Since 2008, Jefferson has gained 13 percent, a rise equal to eighth best in Louisiana.

Jefferson officials broke down some of the numbers that contributed to those results. System officials calculated that the percentage of students in grades three through eight scoring "basic" or higher in mathematics rose from 66 percent to 71 percent from 2011 to 2012. The English percentage rose from 63 percent to 65 percent.

Meanwhile, in a Louisiana rite of passage more than a decade old, fourth and eighth graders must clear a promotional hurdle set by the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program test. They have to score "basic," which is the middle of five levels on the LEAP, in either math or English to reach fifth and ninth grades. And they cannot dip to "unsatisfactory," the bottom rung, in either subject.

Seventy-nine percent of Jefferson's fourth-graders, 2,990 students, met the promotional standard on the LEAP, the state data show. In eighth grade, 2,126 Jefferson students cleared the bar for a rate of 73 percent.

Those percentages track closely to the state as a whole but they raise Jefferson's ranking among districts on LEAP promotions from 48th to 40th in fourth grade and 47th to 35th in eighth grade out of 73 school systems.

"We're very pleased that we did not have a dip, that we've actually begun to have an increasing curve," considering the overhaul underway in the system, Meza said.

The system is revamping its central administration, closing schools to adjust to long-term enrollment trends, tying academic performance more closely to personnel decisions and giving more autonomy to principals at school sites. The changes either anticipated or aligned with recently approved statewide reforms.

"Next year we're going to be much more cohesive, much more systematic," once all the changes are fully in place, he said. "We expect the results to be stronger."

"Our goal this year was to move from a D district to a C," Meza said, referring to letter grades the state will assign later partly using the raw data it released on Wednesday. "All our indications suggest that we've achieved that. We're improving. This is a start."

Jefferson's only weak spot in the scores, Meza said, was in seventh grade, an area he said educators will study to identify shortcomings and locate ways to improve.

LEAP results across the region

He said the system needs to stabilize a teaching force that saw a lot of turnover and absenteeism in 2011-12. But he said the beginning of more intense training for principals on how to exhaustively analyze testing data looking for trouble spots might already have shown some benefits.

In keeping with recent years, Jefferson Parish's top-ranking campuses in the latest test results are the ones designed to provide an accelerated learning program for high-achieving students. And the lowest scoring schools are alternative sites for students suffering academic difficulties.

White praised Jefferson for making "tremendously bold strides" with its school reforms.

"They're not letting adult interests get in the way," White said, echoing a sentiment among many school reformers, including Meza and Jefferson Parish School Board members, that refers to practices such as hiring, assigning and evaluating teachers and principals based on their students' achievement levels instead of performance-neutral variables such as seniority.

He praised Jefferson for participating in test runs of state reforms to teacher job evaluations and other initiatives.

He said Wednesday's host school, Greenlawn Terrace, provides a fitting example of Jefferson's strengths. It is a high-poverty school, with about 82 percent of students qualifying for discounted lunches, but a high-performing one relative to the challenges it faces, winning a B-minus grade last year and this year pushing its rate of students performing on their grade level from 73 percent to 81 percent.